The Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation publishes pilotage information through books and a range of media acessible through its own website www.rccpf.org.uk.
Reviews of the most recent RCCPF Publications and other books written by RCC members are shown below.
Skip Novak on Sailing: Words of Wisdom from 50 Years Afloat is a fascinating collection of articles contributed to Yachting World between 2014 and 2023.
A Cruising Adventure and How-To Guide by Nicholas Coghlan
Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation Balearic Islands 12th Edition, David and Susie Baggaley
Andrew Wilkes reviews Marek Jurczynski's publication
Skipper Lynam developed his love of the sea and sailing as a schoolboy at King William’s College on the Isle of Man becoming, in time, a successful canoe sailor.
Review of Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation publication ‘Norway, Mainland coast, fjord and islands, including Svalbard and Jan Mayen’ 4th Edition
Bermuda, Azores, Madeira Group, Canary Islands and Cape Verdes:
Editor: Jane Russell, RCC, RCCPF Publisher: Royal Institution of Navigation, 2020. Available as a free download
Nigel Wollen reviews Mark Fishwick's West Country Cruising Companion
An excellent pilot by Madeleine and Stephan Strobel updated May 2020.
4th Edition. By Rod and Lucinda Heikell. A Review of this welcome update by Will Pedder
This practical guide deserves a place of honour on the chart table of any sailing yacht venturing to the Chilean channels or, as Bill Tillman referred to them, ‘the magical place of the unknown’.
"The book is a triumph, and represents a significant raising of the bar. Jo is to be congratulated, and I do hope readers will be enthused sufficiently to cruise the South China Sea."
This book is a very practical guide to long distance ocean sailing, compiled by a very accomplished and experienced practitioner and aimed at the would-be ocean sailor.
This meticulously updated 8th edition invites the cruising sailor to safely explore numerous exquisite locations, reassured by the author's wealth of experience.
Our review of September 2019 updated to include CCA review as a download. This book is not a “how to do it” manual, more a compendium of the most important issues.....
"I commend Christopher and the RCCPF team on producing an excellent book that will be an invaluable resource to anyone making this trip (Trinidad to Tobago) for the first time"
Reviewed by Peter Bruce who says: "This Second Edition is thoroughly comprehensive and gives those with it a huge advantage over those without."
Reviewer Jay Devonshire writes: "An up to date Pilot Book is an essential, and this latest publication is to to be recommended."
For many a sailor, crossing the Atlantic Ocean is their holy grail, the equivalent of scaling Mount Everest for a climber. Both are immense challenges and preparation is key.
The RCC Pilotage Foundation has recently brought out a fourth edition, published by Imray, of their extensive guide to The Baltic Sea and its Approaches.
‘Gibraltar and the five Mediterranean costas of Spain form the subject matter of this pilot.’
Paul Heiney's lavishly illustrated book warrants a well-deserved place in the chart table and has plenty of general interest for those seeking inspiration for their next cruise.
This is a beautifully produced and extremely well structured guide to this very long and diverse cruising ground. Reviewed by Katharine Ingram
The Canary Islands Guide is very much a guide for tourists rather than a pilot book, but as such it has the information for a touring yachtsman to enjoy these islands.
For such a small country The Netherlands has an amazing 6,000km of navigable waterways and there is something there for everyone.
The revised edition of the Arctic and Northern Waters Pilot is a compelling volume that takes the reader into waters that few will travel, for those who go there it is essential reading.
Reviewers Katharine & Peter Ingram write: "This RCC Pilotage Foundation book is a beautifully produced and extremely well structured guide to the vast cruising area that is the Pacific Ocean."
The 3rd Edition of this very useable cruising companion is brought right up to date (2016) by Derek Aslett. Published by Fernhurst Books and available through Imray and many local chandleries.
The newly published third edition of the RCC Pilotage Foundation Norway pilot book by Judy Lomax is reviewed below by Madeleine Strobel
A Sixth Edition of the RCCPF Atlantic Islands Pilot has just been published by Imray. It is reviewed by Alan Spriggs (RCC) below.
This is the 7th edition of this well-known and popular book. There is much that is new in this edition, all beautifully explored and explained.
This is a well-researched and well written read for those with or without intention to sail in Japan. It is packed with interesting cultural insights, and lots of historical context. It paints a picture of the friendliness and generosity that the Coghlan’s found in Japan, and which we experienced five years later when we cruised here.
Their journey for this leg of their travels on Bosun Bird a Vancouver 27’, started in Opua, New Zealand, taking them north through Vanuatu, which the reader hears was ‘always what I’d hoped the Pacific would be like’.
A night time intruder with a machete must have coloured their experiences in the Solomon Islands, and their route onwards through Micronesia and Guam, both occupied by the Japanese in WW2 were a leap back into American culture.
First greetings in Japan were fairly onerous officialdom, cruising permits and paperwork, (hugely simplified since). The continued use of FAX, and carbon copies of multiple paperwork gives a less high-tech picture of Japan!
They found they were a rare species as a yacht, not normal tourists, and frequently needing advice and help, which somehow gave an entrée into people’s lives. They experienced huge kindness and time and again were welcomed into people’s homes.
Nicholas recounts how two men worked on their gearbox for a day, and finally solved the problem, but refused any payment; this replicates our experiences, as do the unsolicited cans of beer and presents left on board by unknown locals.
The culture of the Onsen or Sento, the hot public baths is ubiquitous, and the lack of inhibition soon acquired! The ageing and rapidly declining population, an empty school with a full quota of staff and only two pupils seems particularly strange.
Sailing in Japan one discovers is not about anchoring in deserted bays, but endlessly tying up against rough harbour walls, with a large tidal range. The Japanese love affair with concrete has subjugated the coastline to endless sea walls, and concrete harbours, making anchoring options very limited.
The Coghlan’s experienced a couple of serious typhoons while they were there, and those concrete harbour walls gave perfect shelter. Typhoon Talas killed 77 people but was treated with a degree of nonchalance as an everyday occurrence, people cared and helped those affected, but such is life. A selective memory of recent history, and a blanking of any type of confrontation all seem to contribute to the Japanese character.
The Pacific High refused to move north and give benign westerlies, but in late June Bosun Bird left Japan on the onerous passage NW to Alaska. They chose the long route to Kodiak Island 3,471nm, 43 days of damp and fog and for a couple of days bare poles in 40 knots, accompanied by sea birds and albatross. Standard stuff for that passage, but they must have been very relieved to arrive in Kodiak!
The appendix is full of useful comprehensive harbour information, very hard to obtain in Japan, with waypoints for guidance The book is a good read, traces much of the Japanese history in WW2, and the idiosyncrasies of cruising in Japanese waters of the Inland Sea. Hopefully it will inspire many more yachts to go there.
JTW
